This mix emerges from a collective music session that took place in winter 2023 in Kingston, Ontario at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts. The quartet that assembled to record was coordinated by David Parker who welcomed in three musicians to experiment with: Jonas Bonnetta, Chantal Thompson, and Stefan Christoff. The sessions resulted in The Starlight Electric, a session of heartfelt improvisation that will be released as an album in 2024. In preparations for this project to be out in the world, the group put together this mix for ACL, sharing some of their musical influences.
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David Parker writes:
Leading up to the recording session with Stefan, Chantal, and Jonas, I was developing new ideas about composing music as collage, incorporating synth-based backgrounds and field recordings into my songs where normally I would have stuck to guitar, voice, percussion, and a bit of software synth. I was listening to these songs a lot. The guitar playing by Jon Collin and Mike Cooper represent to me unfettered free-ness and willingness to play guitar for a particular soundscape or moment. The Alabaster Deplume track I picked because of the chorus of vocalists. Such beautiful, repetitive, improvised choral singing. And finally, I selected the song by Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer from my favourite album of 2022, my most played album of the year, which has great synths and acoustic instruments blended so well together.
TRACKLIST
song / artist
- Oi Toli – Merope
- A Gente Acaba (Vento Em Rosa) – Alabaster DePlume
- A3 – Jon Collin
- All Tomorrow’s Parties – The Feelies
- LUCID: but intangible – Mark Hewins, Don Gordon, Carla Diratz
- Que En Paz Descanse – Lol Coxhill & Morgan Fisher
- Pärlan – Kajsa Lindgren
- Anna’s Organ – Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer
- Raft 37, Las Balsas – Mike Cooper from Raft
- Osoi – FUJI||||||||||TA (excerpt)
- In Conversation – Chantal Thompson and Richard Bannard
- Mirrors – Stefan Christoff (excerpt)
a closer listen 